Right and Left React to the Church Massacre in Texas

The political news cycle is fast, and keeping up can be overwhelming. Trying to find differing perspectives worth your time is even harder. That’s why we have scoured the internet for political writing from the right and left that you might not have seen.

From the Right

“For those with little understanding of and less regard for the Christian faith, there may be no greater image of prayer’s futility than Christians being gunned down mid-supplication. But for those familiar with the Bible’s promises concerning prayer and violence, nothing could be further from the truth.”

Mr. Fiene criticizes those on the left who say that instead of “thoughts and prayers” the nation needs stricter gun control rules. More specifically, Mr. Fiene, a Lutheran pastor, explains how secular progressives might miss the comfort Christians gain through prayer, even in tragic times. Read more »

“The problem was not the absence of a background check but the inadequacy of the background check that was performed.”

Mr. Sullum, writing for the libertarian Reason magazine, points out that both Devin Kelley, whom the police identified as the gunman in the mass shooting in Texas, and Dylan S. Roof, who was found guilty last year of killing nine parishioners in South Carolina, slipped through a system of background checks meant to prevent them from buying firearms. The problem, he points out, is not the lack of screening, but the efficacy of the system. Read more »

“The sad and terrifying fact is that no one has a reliable answer for evil men who want to commit mass murder. And when no one has the answers, isn’t that exactly the time to pray?”

When confronted with an incomprehensible evil like the shooting in Texas, Mr. French writes, prayer is not only rational, but it is also effective. Especially if you are someone who believes “that God intervenes in the affairs of men.” Read more »

_____

From the Left

Image

The scene on Monday outside the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Tex.CreditTodd Heisler/The New York Times

“Congratulations, America, by the way, on so incompetently responding to your epidemic of gun violence that you need to invent subcategories to rank your most catastrophic acts of mass casualty gun violence.”

Americans have become so used to mass shootings that the national response to such events has become depressingly rote, Mr. Faris writes. The left will call for stricter gun control while the right will offer condolences to the victims while standing behind Second Amendment protections, and soon enough, the country will move on. He points out that “only when we reckon with the human costs of our indifference and decide to act” will this familiar cycle end. But this day, to Mr. Faris, seems far away. Read more »

“[ …] the reality is that there is a lot of evidence that ‘a good guy with a gun’ can’t stop mass shootings and other gun violence in the U.S.”

The shooting in Sutherland Springs has introduced a favorite talking point of the National Rifle Association into a real world situation: whether a “good guy with a gun” is the best antidote to a “bad guy with a gun.” Mr. Lopez takes on that argument. First, he cites research that shows a basic fact about gun deaths: “Where there are more guns, there are more gun deaths.” Second, he points to statistics that show how “It’s way more likely in America that someone will shoot and kill another person in the course of committing a crime than will do so in self-defense.” Finally, he also notes, most of the time, a “good guy with a gun” responds to a mass shooting too late. By the time the armed neighbor shot at Mr. Kelley, he writes, 40 people had already been shot. Read more »

Finally, From the Center

“It’s not government’s job to issue a drumbeat of ‘thoughts and prayers’ when tragedy strikes. It’s the government’s job to enact policies to ensure tragedies don’t happen in the first place.”

Mr. Bardella is a former spokesman for Breitbart News and Republican politicians like Representative Darrell Issa of California and former Senator Olympia Snowe of Maine. He has previously written about his break from the Republican Party, which you can read here. He is unconvinced by the sincerity of President Trump’s reaction to the shooting, writing that while Mr. Trump blamed “mental health” for the shooting, he also “signed into law a bill that rolled back regulations that made it harder for people with mental illnesses to buy a gun.” Read more »